A Greek Odyssey

[Stu]

I thought I would write up a few notes about what I managed to see whilst away for a week's holiday, and the benefits of taking my scope with me.

I took my TS 72mm scope, packed in a ThinkTank Airport Accelerator case designed for carry on baggage, with a range of accessories. This included a Giro-WR mount, Baader Prism diagonal, Baader CoolWedge, 2" erecting prism (for daytime spotting), RDF and a few other bits. For eyepieces I took a 24mm Panoptic, 7.2mm to 21.5mm Zoom, 12.5mm Docter, 3 to 6mm Nag Zoom and 2.4mm Vixen HR. In hindsight, the Pan and two zooms would be fine in future to save some weight. Tripod wise I had my trusty Gitzo, very stable and lightweight.

So, what did I see? First off I wasn't expecting dark skies due to the resort lights and general LP in the area, neither did I expect to be able to get away somewhere dark as this was a week's family holiday. Most of my observing was in 10 to 20 minute bursts between other activities, but that was perfectly fine with me.

We arrived early hours on Sunday morning and were quite wired from the journey so I did manage a quick session on Orion, catching M42 and the trapezium nicely with both widefield and high power views. The OIII filter helped deal with LP. Sigma Orionis was the other target I spotted, without the faint fourth component though.

On Monday morning, I did a little solar from the balcony, spotting a bright patch of activity near the limb which had just rotated into view. This became more diffuse over the next couple of days but did spot it once more on on the Wednesday. Outside that, the sun was pretty featureless and on the last Saturday it was too hazy to see the new sunspot pair.

On Tuesday evening I just happened to spot the new Moon a little way above the mountain ridge at the front of our apartment. It was a very fine crescent, and the sky was still quite bright. I grabbed the scope and set up quickly, just in time to watch it set behind the ridge. There was just a little crater detail visible but no real earthshine due to the sky brightness. On checking it was 1.6 days old at the time, one of my earliest observations I think and a great catch. Seeing it move so fast behind the ridge top was quite amazing. In hindsight, I missed a chance at the 0.8 day moon because the sun would have set behind the ridge making it possible to scan for it quite easily. Unfortunately I didn't realise that at the time so didn't try for it.

From then on I had a lovely sequence of evening lunar observations, 2.7 days old on 30th, 3.6 on 31st and 4.7 on 1st. I caught these using my S9 and Orion SteadyPix EZ adaptor which works well on a range of eyepieces. The 31st was the biggest and most unexpected treat with Jupiter only 0.5 degrees from the moon. Visually it was lovely, earthshine clearly visible and some detail on Jupiter's disk along with Ganymede showing clearly. Varying the exposure allowed me to catch the earthshine in one image.

My last challenge for the week was to spot Uranus. This was tricky for two reasons, first the view from the balcony was largely obscured and secondly the light pollution made visibility of stars for hopping tricky. In the end, I put the scope out on a verge in front of the apartment which was largely shielded from the nearest lamp posts. With the 24mm Panoptic giving me 3.8 degrees of sky, I began a somewhat epic star hop starting at Aldebaran, heading up to the wide pair Xi and Omicron Tauri. Then across to Menkar, and around Lambda, Mu and Xi2 Cetus before stretching to Xi1 and finally across to Uranus. Not dramatic by any means, but a subtle blue green colour and tiny disk was visible at higher power using the Nag Zoom at 3mm (around x140).

Outside the astro, I also did some daytime spotting of the ridges, watching the mountain goats wandering around on the steep rocky hillside.

All in all, a very pleasant week in every respect, and well worth bringing the scope along.

[JeremyS]

1 hour ago, Stu said:

packed in a ThinkTank Airport Accelerator case designed for carry on baggage

Nice report Stu. I presume you managed to get the case in the overhead locker? Would it have fit under the seat? I fear what would happen if the overheads were full - you know, when they say we'll put your excess bags in the hold free of charge 😞 ...

[Stu]

17 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Nice report Stu. I presume you managed to get the case in the overhead locker? Would it have fit under the seat? I fear what would happen if the overheads were full - you know, when they say we'll put your excess bags in the hold free of charge 😞 ...

Pretty sure it would not go under the seat in front, although I didn't try. The plane was a 787 Dreamliner and I must say they are excellent both for leg room and baggage storage space, there was plenty of room even for a holiday flight.

The ThinkTank is designed to fit all but the smallest, budget airline carry on allowances and I did not have a problem bringing it onboard. I think it would probably have been ok in the child, although I would have wrapped a jumper or towel around the scope for added protection if that had been the case I think. The little TS is pretty solid too so I'm fairly sure it would be ok.

[JeremyS]

13 minutes ago, Stu said:

Pretty sure it would not go under the seat in front, although I didn't try. The plane was a 787 Dreamliner and I must say they are excellent both for leg room and baggage storage space, there was plenty of room even for a holiday flight.

The ThinkTank is designed to fit all but the smallest, budget airline carry on allowances and I did not have a problem bringing it onboard. I think it would probably have been ok in the child, although I would have wrapped a jumper or towel around the scope for added protection if that had been the case I think. The little TS is pretty solid too so I'm fairly sure it would be ok.

Thanks Stu. I also have the ThinkTank for my Tak FC 76DCU, but not used it on a flight yet - I've previously used a smaller backpack which was fine. 

[Stu]

15 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Thanks Stu. I also have the ThinkTank for my Tak FC 76DCU, but not used it on a flight yet - I've previously used a smaller backpack which was fine. 

It does feel quite big compared with a normal rucksack, but is well made and ideal for the job. Better than a pelicase for carry on as it is lighter so you have more allowance left for contents.

[JeremyS]

2 minutes ago, Stu said:

Better than a pelicase for carry on as it is lighter so you have more allowance left for contents.

But I suppose you can sit on a Pelicase when the flight is delayed 🙂

 

[Stu]

39 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

But I suppose you can sit on a Pelicase when the flight is delayed 🙂

 

Which it just so happens mine is! Bad weather over the UK to blame I guess.

Here is my case, pics taken when removing the Baader Wonderfluid from the case before security. Something I forgot on the way out which led to a checking over

[JeremyS]

27 minutes ago, Stu said:

Which it just so happens mine is! Bad weather over the UK to blame I guess.

Hope the delay isn't too long, Stu.

Safe travels/ Lovely weather back here 😞